THE STRENGTH of a nation is anchored in the strength of her environment. We need to have a friendly and robust environment in order to have a meaningful existence. In Ghana, our environment is such that, the slightest dislocation brings with it very egregious consequences. This situation has worsened in these recent times, and it appears nothing significant is being done, in particular, to address the frequently occurring artificial disasters that affect us almost always.

As humans, we cannot prevent natural disasters from happening; we cannot stop the rains, but we can put in interventions to prevent or minimise their impact upon their occurrence. This is what our leaders seem not to be doing, and as a result, leading to needless and preventable deaths and losses in the country.

If we want to do something to avert these worrying occurrences in the country, it must be now or never. This is not the time for promises, neither is it the time for political rhetoric, but the time for action, the time to fix the challenges in our environment.

The New Patriotic Party government, under the distinguished leadership of President Nana Akufo-Addo must work assiduously to ensure that the frequent fire outbreaks and gas explosions, as well as the annual flooding are dealt with to the benefit of the country and citizenry.

They need to ensure that the right interventions are put in place, existing rules and regulations are followed and enforced, and negligent leaders are made accountable to their actions and in actions. Those who have been assigned responsibilities must justify the trust reposed in them; they must prove that they are up to their assigned mandate, and removed when they fail.

Is it not time for us to start holding our leaders accountable to their offices? Is it not time for us to hold our Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives and other duty-bearers accountable to their offices? When we start relieving duty-bearers of their responsibilities for want of action or negligence, we shall be making progress.

This is one of the surest ways of ensuring that these man-made disasters are handled in such a way that our human and material losses are reduced to the barest minimum, if not eradicated.